Who would have thought that the movie whose title no one wanted to touch would become such a hit that touched a nerve with so many action seekers. Well, hit may be pushing it, as 1987’s Robocop hit theaters in 1987 and while north of $50 million is a good chunk of change -especially in 1987 dollars- it wasn’t until it hit video store shelves and gained more of a following when the folks at Orion Pictures decided it was time to make a sequel.

In 1990, following harsh financial negotiations with star Peter Weller and facing a devastating Writer’s Strike, the fledgling film company did just that. With Irvin Kershner, the director of The Empire Strikes Back at the helm, and a scab script co-written by a hot comic book writer named Frank Miller, Orion thought it had the correct formula to create a Paul Verhoeven substitute.

Join me, Matt, and Batch as we dissect whether producers should have waited for their original director to finish filming Total Recall before embarking on a sequel to their satire hit, and if the meanness of this sequel is enough to justify its existence. We also try to answer questions such as what is up with Robocop’s walk and color in this one?

Download below, and be sure to check back as this marks the halfway point of this retrospective. Up next: Robocop 3.